Beautiful World
by Simoun Sibylla
Summary: Harley plays the piano and recalls how he and Blue first met. Takes place 100 years before the start of the anime, with flashbacks to even earlier years. Blue x Harley slash!


**Pairing:** Blue x Harley

**Rating:** PG-13 for romance and mild violence. Contains slash.

**Disclaimer:** Characters don't belong to me.

**Note: **I'll be alternating between Harley's childhood and adulthood. When he's a kid, he goes by William; when he's his Captain-y self, he goes by Harley. Somewhere along the way he seems to have made the switch.

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**Beautiful World**

When William Harley was a child, he wanted to grow up to be a musician, just like his father. He would sit at his father's feet and watch his nimble fingers strum the chords of his guitar, or perch on his father's lap in front of the piano and delight in the flurry of movement across the gleaming ivory and black keys. Movement and hesitation, action and inaction, coming together in a beautiful rhythm—that was music to William.

It wasn't until much later that he learned that music also had a sound.

William was born deaf. Not completely deaf—apparently one ear retained a minimal amount of hearing—but he could not hear the melodies his father made so much as feel their vibrations and see them in the movement of hands upon instruments.

But because of that, he saw music everywhere. He saw meaning in the gestures of eloquent hands, the shapes formed by moving lips, the glint of an eye, and the curve of a dimple. He watched intently, focusing on the people around him, and learned a human language so subtle most people never become conscious of it. William knew when his mother was angry, even when his father was oblivious; he knew when his father was frustrated, even when his mother ignored it. He knew that the tall neighbor from the red house next door hated children, even though he pretended to be kind, and he knew that the girl who lived across the street wanted to be his friend, even though she was too shy to come over.

William knew a lot about the world for a boy his age.

His parents, worried about their son's hearing problems, took him to various doctors more times than he could count, and so William spent much of his early childhood in the clinics and hospitals of Altamira. He tried to appear calm and quiet through all the procedures because he knew his parents would worry if he protested or cried.

William learned very quickly that bravery was but a pretense, but a very useful one at that.

After several years of various treatments—some more experimental than others—the cutting edge of Superior Dominant medical technology finally gave William the sense of hearing he hadn't known was missing.

It was strange. The first sound he consciously remembered was the dull rumbling of a truck passing in front of him as he stood on the sidewalk just outside the hospital, holding his mother's hand. It did not frighten him; it was just a new layer of sensation on top of the vibrations the passing vehicle sent through the air and the ground.

"He'll never have perfect hearing," the doctor told Mrs. Harley when William went in for a check-up a few months later. "But this is far better than nothing, and with an external hearing aid to supplement the implants, he'll be able to hear about as well as anyone else."

William could hear the doctor's voice now, but his eyes still focused instinctively on the doctor's lips and body language as she spoke, because that was where he found the true meaning underlying her words. And even though his mother didn't say anything, William knew from the relaxed slant of her shoulders and the faint sigh she breathed that she was relieved and happy.

Even though he had hearing now, William would forever look first to the language he knew the best—the language of the body, of the subconscious.

xxxxxx

Captain William Harley loved to play the piano. He was by no means a great pianist, but he thought himself passably good. When he had the time, he liked to spend an hour or two with his hands on the ivory. Usually he would play alone, but sometimes he had an audience, as he did tonight. Professor Hillman had come into the music room unexpectedly while Harley played. The professor silently took up a position by the far wall as Harley continued through a light-hearted Clementi sonatina. When the final note faded, Harley lowered his hands to his lap, and the professor clapped slowly in appreciation.

"You seem to be enjoying yourself," teased Hillman, approaching the piano.

"I like to end on a happy note," said Harley. He closed the cover over the keyboard, then rose to his feet. "But something's just not right today. It was a little off." He ran a hand over the polished black synthetic wood of the piano.

"It sounded fine to me."

"It didn't seem slightly out of tune?"

"I've heard worse."

"Not quite the response I was hoping for."

Hillman chuckled. "I'll take a look at it later. Maybe one of the kids did something to it during the last music class. You know how what little saboteurs they can be." He picked a bit of lint from the right sleeve of his dark gray robe. "I came in here to make sure they had put away all the other instruments properly anyway. Someone smashed a clarinet the other day."

"At least they still have the opportunity to make music."

Hillman tucked his hands inside the sleeves of his robe. "It was your idea to add music to the curriculum, wasn't it."

"A somewhat selfish proposal, I will admit." The piano was one of the first things Harley had wanted to have on the Shangri-la once their lives aboard the stolen ship had stabilized somewhat. The Mu might be hated and hunted by all of humanity, but he had hoped they could forget that reality for a little while when they gathered around the piano to enjoy warm, comforting music in good company.

"The music is to everyone's benefit," responded Hillman. "It fosters creativity and teamwork. And we need to make our own music and develop our own culture, a culture independent of the humans."

William sighed. "Sometimes I still can't believe that we've reached a point where we can speak of such things—the art and culture of the Mu."

"It's been 200 years, give or take. Entire kingdoms rose and fell in less than that."

"Indeed."

They gazed in silence at the piano for a moment, each remembering the long journey from captivity in Altamira to the free skies of Artemisia.

"Ah, come to think of it," said Hillman suddenly, "maybe that's the problem."

"What?"

"When was the last time you had your hearing aid adjusted? Maybe that's the reason why you think your music was off even though it sounded fine to me."

Somewhat taken aback by the suggestion, William raised a hand to the thin, flat hearing aid he wore clipped over one ear. It was slightly bulkier than the standard model, but it let him hear far more than the average person. In a quiet moment, he could even hear the mechanical workings of the ship he captained. The pulse of its nuclear engine, the hum of power through its wiring, and the rush of liquids and gases through its pipeline veins all came together in a symphony of efficiency. It reassured him that all was as it should be.

But the professor was right. He couldn't remember the last time he had his hearing checked. "I'll have the doctor examine it," he agreed, but then a thought came to him. "While I'm at it, I'll ask Soldier Blue to do the same."

After a few more minutes of chatting, Harley bade Hillman farewell and set out in search of Blue. Walking down the main corridor of the Shangri-la, William reached out telepathically for the Soldier. _Soldier, it's Harley. Are you busy?_

Immediately he felt the warm response of Blue's mind. _I'm in a conference right now, but it's wrapping up. What's going on?_

Harley came to a halt. Through a window to his left, he could see Soldier Blue sitting at a table in a small meeting room with two other Mu officers. Blue's back was to the window, so he didn't see Harley. Pleased to have stumbled upon the Soldier so quickly, Harley moved to the window and stood there with his hands clasped behind his back. _There's just a minor matter I'd like to discuss, _said Harley, trying to conceal his amusement as he watched Blue tap his fingers on the tabletop. He perused a computer display one of his companions had called up, apparently oblivious to Harley's presence.

But then Blue swiveled around in his chair and met Harley's gaze with a bemused smile. _You're not as stealthy as you think, Harley, _said the Soldier. He beckoned for Harley to enter the room.

Harley stepped inside, and the door slid shut behind him. The two other officers stood sharply at attention. "Captain Harley!"

He gestured for them to ignore him. "As you were. Don't let me interrupt."

"We're finished anyway," said Blue. "I was just approving the latest version of the plans to expand the residential areas." He leaned back in his chair and folded his hands. "So we will proceed as discussed," he told the other two Mu. "Bring the revised blueprints to the next meeting, and I'll get the other Elders to approve it."

The young officers nodded. "Yes, sir!" Blue smiled and dismissed them. They hurried out of the room with a polite nod to the captain.

"More renovations?" asked Harley once they were alone.

Blue nodded. "The children are growing up and will need their own rooms soon enough."

Harley smiled. "And more children are coming in each day."

"Only as long as we keep catching them before the adulthood exam." He rose from the chair and pulled his blue cape around him. "We must never grow complacent, or we will lose our advantage."

"Of course, Soldier."

"You never underwent that adulthood examination, right?" asked Blue suddenly.

"Correct."

A shadow flickered across the Soldier's red eyes, and Harley knew that he was remembering their captivity on Altamira. Blue's powers had been awakened in the midst of the adulthood exam, and Harley's Mu nature revealed itself shortly thereafter, but before he could undergo the exam. Blue's childhood memories had been erased; Harley's had not.

Blue's amnesia was not Harley's fault, but he still couldn't help but feel a pang of regret at the thought of all the things his friend had lost as he became the Origin.

As if to dispel Harley's unease, Blue gave him a faint, wry smile. "Then that means you're still a child, Harley." He stepped closer to William and gazed up at him intently. "Shall I include a playroom for you in the new renovation plans?"

Harley cleared his throat. "That won't be necessary," he said, not sure what Blue was getting at.

Blue grinned, but then his face grew serious again. "What was it you came to see me about?" he asked.

"Hillman reminded me to have my hearing aid checked, so I came to ask if you had yours looked at recently."

Blue reflexively raised both hands to the headphones on his head. "No. It's been—maybe three years since the last calibration?"

William shook his head. For the fact that they both relied on their hearing aids so much, they were rather careless when it came to maintaining them. "I'll arrange for the doctor to look at both of our devices tomorrow, then. It'll probably be easiest if you came with me and had it done at the same time."

"That sounds good."

"You really should take better care of yourself, Soldier," chided William as they moved towards the door. "Especially since your headphones are an older model."

"Speak for yourself, Harley."

They left the conference room, but then Blue paused in the corridor. "Are you going back to the bridge?" he asked.

Harley stopped as well. "No, I'm off duty for now."

Again Blue gave him a smile. "Then come with me for a bit."

"Where to?"

"The planetarium?" It was more of a suggestion than a command.

Harley arched an eyebrow. "As you wish."

Blue looked pleased as they set off down the hall to the elevator that would take them to the vast planetarium at the top of the ship.

"By the way, what did you do to have Hillman say you needed to get your ears checked?" wondered Blue.

William hesitated. "I was...playing the piano," he admitted.

He was not surprised when Blue laughed at him.

xxxxxx

When William Harley was fourteen, he left his parents' house to enter the Educational Center, where the youth of Altamira convened to prepare for the all-important adulthood exam. Under the strict eye of their supervisors, they took classes that would prepare them for adulthood. When they were deemed ready by their supervisors, they would undergo the examination that would determine whether they were worthy of the rights and responsibilities of adulthood.

The Center was an austere facility, a self-contained complex of dormitories, cafeterias, activity rooms, and offices. It reminded William of the hospital wards where he had spent much of his childhood, which was probably why he felt oddly at home here, even though he did not actually like the place. His days there were highly regimented. Everyone wore the same nondescript gray clothing, everyone ate their meals together at the same time, everyone studied the same materials in class, and everyone went to bed at the same hour each night. The adults in charge assured them that this disciplined, almost military lifestyle would prepare them to be productive members of society. "Obedience. Discipline. Respect. Those are the values you will take with you as you set out into the world of adulthood and lead Humanity on the righteous path back to our sacred home, Terra!"

But William cared little about order and discipline, or any home that was not the one his parents lived in. He wanted to make music with his father again and play in the school orchestra once more. He wanted to hang out in his own room with his friends without white-robed adults watching his every move. He longed to do anything but spend another long day studying the virtues of the S.D. System.

Still, the routine of life at the Center got to all students—including William. The repetitive drudgery wore him down to the point that his lusterless, day-to-day existence became the norm, and memories of his old home seemed like a half-forgotten dream. There were moments, though, when his frustration and boredom became too much to bear. Then William would try to find ways to make his life more interesting. He drummed on tabletops and sang loudly in the shower until someone rebuked him. He sometimes got other children in the Center to perform skits with him or to sing along with him, but a stern supervisor would always interrupt their antics sooner or later. William would then be shunned by his study group for a few days because he was a troublemaker, and so he entertained himself by slipping away from everyone and exploring the facility on his own. He kept his spirits up with the fantasy that if worse came to worse, he could always break out of here and simply tell the world that he was an adult—with or without the examination results.

And sometimes there would be something new and exciting to disrupt the routine: the departure of some students and the arrival of new children. Every few weeks, someone from his study group disappeared, presumably to take the adulthood exam. They never came back, and the new children who took their place quickly made themselves at home.

William watched his friends come and go, but William himself never went anywhere.

After nearly a year in the Center, he felt like an old-timer who knew the facility better than anyone else. He found himself awaiting the new arrivals and eagerly taking them under his wing. If nothing else, it relieved the boredom of waiting for his turn to undergo the exam.

One day, as he was watching a gaggle of newcomers mill about in the cafeteria at lunchtime, his eyes were drawn to a short, skinny boy with dirty blond hair and big, blue eyes. He looked almost too young to be admitted to the Center, but since he was here, he had to be about 12 or 13.

Curious, William watched him as the group finally found a table and sat down with their lunch trays. Most of the children were too nervous to eat; instead, they looked around in wide-eyed wonder at the dining hall or whispered excitedly to each other. The blue-eyed boy, though, ate quietly, pausing every now and then to peer at one of his companions with a strange intensity. Sometimes he smiled and said something in response to another child, but then he would return to eat in silence.

There was something odd about the boy—something more than just his young appearance and his scrawny frame—but William couldn't put his finger on it.

Finally, he decided direct contact would be better than distant observation, so William got up and walked over to the table where the new children were now finishing their meals. The strange boy looked up at him right away, though the others still seemed unaware of him.

William hid his intense curiosity behind a mask as bland as that of any of the adults. He had been here long enough to know how to mimic them. "You all must be new, huh," said William.

The group fell quiet and looked at him.

"Yeah, so? Who are you?" asked a black-haired girl with prominent freckles.

"I'm William. I've been here a while, so if you have any questions, you should come to me. I know things the adults don't."

"If you've been here so long, doesn't that mean you're not fit for the adulthood exam?"

William looked down. The strange blond boy had spoken.

"It doesn't matter how long you're here," he replied defensively. The boy had managed to pick out his one sore spot within seconds of meeting him. "You don't know what it's like, 'cause you haven't been here long enough to see anything yet." He was more irritated than he wanted to admit.

The boy's big blue eyes blinked twice, and then he replied, "Well, William, I plan to get out of here as soon as possible." A chorus of emphatic agreement rose from the rest of the group. He gestured at his plate. "I mean, the food's pretty gross." His companions laughed.

William stared down at the boy. There was still something about his demeanor that nagged at him. It was more than just his unexpected brashness. There was something oddly familiar about him.

"If you don't watch your mouth, you'll be stuck here forever," warned William. "The adults hate any kind of complaints, you know."

The boy smiled up at him. "Sounds like that'd be something you know a lot about if you've been stuck here forever."

William opened his mouth to retort, but in that moment he realized what had been bothering him about this boy—he hardly made eye contact. He always looked at William's face, but only when the boy was speaking did his gaze actually move up to meet William's eyes.

The boy was reading his lips. William was sure of it. He wasn't truly deaf, judging by the way he spoke, but the way he moved, the way he concentrated so intently on those around him—it was just like what William had done for years, and what he still did, sometimes. Perhaps that was why the boy seemed so familiar to him.

But William knew now was not the time to ask the boy anything further. He would wait until he found a way to get alone with the boy and confirm his suspicions.

"Well, then, if you're so smart, you go ahead and find a way to pass that exam before I do," said William. He turned on his heel and left before the strange boy could counter with a comeback, but as he walked away, he heard the boy say, "You bet I will!"

xxxxxx

"This new planetarium is so impressive."

"It's eight years old, Harley."

"Is it?" Harley found himself wondering yet again why time seemed to pass faster the older he became.

He followed Blue further into the enormous, marble-floored hall that housed the ship's main telescope and other observation equipment. Originally part of this space had been part of the engine room, but the last time they had upgraded the ship's power core with a much more compact and efficient model, a lot of extra space had been freed up. The area was now used by the Science Section and occasionally by the Council of Elders for meetings.

But at this time in the evening, the place was usually deserted.

"Why did you want to come here, Soldier?" asked Harley.

Blue smiled. With a wave of his hand, he called up a glowing display screen in the air before him and quickly entered a few commands. The lights throughout the hall dimmed until they emitted only the slightest glow. Blue shut down the command console, crossed his arms, and looked up with an eminently pleased expression on his face.

Harley followed his gaze to the distant ceiling, which was veiled in darkness now. But suddenly it came alive with pinpricks of light—starlight.

"Don't tell me you just wanted to gaze at the stars."

Blue walked over to a set of stairs going up to raised platform and took a seat three steps up. "It is a planetarium, Harley. What else would one do in a place like this?"

Harley snorted—he could think of many things to do here—but he said nothing and simply moved to sit beside Blue on the stairs.

"You have to admit, it's pretty peaceful here," Blue said, stretching out his legs in front of him.

Harley gazed at him for a moment, then nodded. "Indeed."

Blue leaned back, resting his elbows on the steps behind him, and looked up at the ceiling. "This ship is hidden in a sea of clouds, but beyond that, in a sky we cannot see, there are the stars."

Harley tilted his head back to look at the stars projected overhead.

"They're so endlessly far away," sighed Blue, "and yet, they are so beautiful."

Harley turned his gaze back to Blue. In the twilight of the hall, the man's face seemed even more striking than usual—his ivory skin emphasized the glow in his ruby eyes, and the dim lighting softened the shadows beneath his sharp cheekbones and jaw line. Harley found himself wanting to reach out and turn Blue's face towards him so he could admire it better, but he resisted the impulse and contented himself with saying, "Not nearly as beautiful as you."

Blue looked over at him with raised eyebrows. "You're ever the romantic." But the slight smile playing at the corners of his mouth revealed that he enjoyed the compliment.

Harley smiled, pleased by the reaction. He turned away, settling back against the stairs, and closed his eyes. "Only when no one else is around."

Then he felt a hand cover his, so he turned to look at Blue again. Suddenly he found Blue's face very close to his. He opened his mouth to say something, but Blue leaned in and shut his mouth with a kiss.

It was unexpected, as Blue's kisses always were. Harley had long, long ago accepted that Blue would only come to him when he needed him; Harley felt it was not his place to ever demand anything of Blue.

But that did not mean he didn't thrill at the familiar taste of Blue's mouth and the sensation of his tongue against his.

They separated for air a moment later, and Harley said, "Blue, what are you—"

"As you said, there's no one around."

"Yes, but…"

"I'd like to sit here in peace and quiet, gazing at the stars." He moved closer to Harley. "And maybe we could just forget everything else for a little while."

"Is this what you call 'gazing at the stars'?" asked Harley, feeling Blue's hand creep up his thigh.

"You yourself are the brightest star," said Blue softly before leaning in for another kiss.

"Who's the romantic now," murmured Harley when they parted long enough to shift into a more comfortable position. Harley put his arms around Blue.

_Silence, _commanded Blue telepathically as they kissed again.

They lost themselves in each other's arms for a while, but eventually Harley realized that this staircase really wasn't the best location for this activity. The steps were hard and cold, poking into his back a bit now that Blue was practically sitting in his lap with his arms around him. _Blue, why don't we go someplace more…comfortable_, he suggested.

Blue reluctantly pulled back, and Harley wished he hadn't said anything, because it pained him to see that beautiful face move away from him. But it was too late—Blue disentangled himself and climbed to his feet. Harley pushed himself up from the steps and stood up as well.

Blue looked up at the ceiling again, and his brows furrowed. "When I think of all the light-years we crossed to get to where we are today," he began, but then he fell silent and frowned.

Harley tugged at his uniform jacket. "The stars keep shining, oblivious to our journey."

"Do you think the day will come when we leave for the stars again?"

Harley frowned now, too, a bit uncertain about what Blue was thinking. "If you tell us to go, we will go. This ship will take us wherever you wish, and we have always trusted your guidance."

"But where would we go?" sighed Blue. "We belong nowhere." He shut his eyes for a moment, but then he opened them again as he called up the command console. A moment later, the stars vanished, darkening the hall further. With a swirl of his cape, Blue turned away and began walking towards the exit, his footfalls echoing loudly in the vast, marble hall.

Harley saw for the first time in a long while how alone Blue was—he was forever walking down some dark, indistinct path that the other Mu could only guess at. For a moment, Harley feared that Blue would leave without him and disappear into the night. Before Blue could take more than a few steps, Harley moved forward and swept him up in an embrace from behind.

"That's why," whispered Harley into Blue's ear, "I won't let you go anywhere by yourself. Wherever you want to go, we go together. And the rest of our people will follow."

He felt Blue lean back against him and let out another sigh. Harley tightened his embrace slightly, wanting to draw Blue even closer.

"Ah, that's right. You and I have always been together, from the very beginning."

"Yes."

A gloved hand reached back to brush the hair at the nape of Harley's neck. _Thank you_.

xxxxxx

Before young William Harley had the chance to learn more about the odd, blue-eyed boy he had met in the cafeteria, the boy vanished. William kept an eye out for him, but when he did not appear in any of the common areas for two days, he knew that the little brat must have passed the adulthood exam. That was the only possible explanation for his absence; if he had fallen sick, the boy's entire study group would've been quarantined, yet they were still out and about with the rest of the Center's population.

Even though he was disappointed to be left behind yet again, William felt a begrudging respect for the kid who had lived up to his big words. He had gotten out of here faster than most. William wondered if he'd ever get to leave here himself. He wished he knew what the trick to being selected for the exam was.

A few days passed, and William began to forget all about the boy who had piqued his curiosity. The humdrum routine of the Center lulled him back into his state of general apathy and vague irritation.

But one night, as William pulled back the covers of his bed, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his head. Wincing, he raised a hand to his temple, but the headache vanished almost immediately. He waited for a moment, but the pain did not come back. He felt completely fine otherwise. Confused but too sleepy to care, he climbed into the bottom bunk of the dormitory bed he shared with another boy.

The lights turned off at their scheduled time, plunging the room into darkness. William closed his eyes and began to drift off to sleep.

_Hey!_

Half-asleep, he thought he heard someone call out to him.

_Can anyone hear me?_

He rolled over, wishing the noise would go away.

_Let me out of here!_

The clear urgency of the voice startled him awake. He opened his eyes and sat up in bed. He looked around, trying to figure out which of the many other occupants in this big room could be causing such a commotion. But the room was dark, and he could barely see past the next three bunks in his row of beds. No one else appeared to be awake.

This was strange—if any of the children so much as whispered to another after lights-out, an adult or one of the night-shift robots would come in to scold them. But there was no sign of anyone coming.

With a frown, William lay back down and tugged a pillow over his head. Maybe he had been dreaming. After a little while, he started to doze off again.

_Let me out! I didn't mean to do anything wrong!_

William's eyes flew open. The voice was even louder now, as though someone were shouting straight into his head. It made his head throb with a dull pain, though not as sharp as what he had felt earlier.

But the lights were off, and the dormitory silent.

After a moment, he threw back the sheets and climbed out of bed. No one else seemed to have heard the voice, or if they had, they were ignoring it. But William knew he wouldn't be able to sleep until he figured out just who was calling for help. He had been here long enough to know that this was not the kind of thing that happened at the Center. He was certain that something unusual was going on.

Careful not to make any noise, William padded barefoot across the cold tile floor towards the door. He needed to find the source of this voice. He knew he would get in trouble for roaming about the facility at night—it was only a matter of time before the security system alerted the staff—but he figured he could talk his way out of it if necessary. He was used to being in trouble, and if someone was really crying for help and only he heard it, it was his duty to do something about it.

William encountered no one as he wandered through the Center, and he did not hear the voice again. He checked the nooks and crannies of the common areas where he thought someone might be able to be trapped—that closet with in the bathroom, the odd bend in the corridor to the dormitory wing, the gap between the flower planters and the back wall of the dining hall. Finally, having exhausted all his ideas, he came to a stop in front of the big, plain white wall with the enormous metal doors that marked the boundary that only adults could cross. He had never been beyond this area, and rumor had it that by passing through these doors, children became adults whether they wanted to or not. If anyone was trapped somewhere, it would have to be behind these doors.

William hesitated, then placed his hands against the silver doors and shoved. Nothing happened. He pushed harder, but the doors did not budge. Frowning, he tried prying at them with his fingers, but that only made his hands hurt.

"William Harley! Cease and desist immediately!"

He flinched at the sound of the harsh voice calling his name. He dropped his arms to his sides and turned back to meet his accuser: a Terraz Guardian robot. It was a slender, conical device about the size of a small child. It hovered awkwardly in the air before him, spouting commands at him angrily in its computerized voice. "Stop! Entry is forbidden! Return to your room!"

"I was just looking for something," he muttered, wishing he knew how to turn down the volume of the robot guardian assigned to fill in when most of the adults were off-duty. "I couldn't sleep."

"Return to your bunk immediately! You will be disciplined! Disobedience must be punished! Disrespect will not be tolerated!"

William clenched his fists, but then relaxed them and slowly bowed his head, purposefully signaling resignation and obedience to the floating Guardian. Then he feinted a step forward before swatting the robot aside and spinning back towards the door, pushing at it with all his might.

Suddenly two heavy hands slammed onto his shoulders and yanked him back from the door.

"Hey!" he cried out, then closed his mouth as he looked up into the black-masked face of a security guard. He heard the heavy footsteps of boots in the corridor and knew there were more guards coming.

He had never seen security guards at the Center before.

It dawned on him that maybe he hadn't been the only one to hear the strange voice calling for help. Maybe there really was something serious going on and he had interfered with the guards' efforts to find the source of that voice. He suddenly began to question his ability to talk his way out of trouble this time.

_I want out! _

As if on cue, the strange voice flashed into his head and a sharp pain shot through his skull again. He cried out, but the voice grew louder until it drowned out his own thoughts.

_I want out. I want out I wantout IwantoutIwantoutoutoutout_

Kicking and thrashing, William squirmed free of the security guard's grip and began a mad dash back to the dormitory. Out of nowhere, two other guards appeared in front of him. He tried to duck between them, but one guard's boot connected with William's shins and sent the boy crashing to the floor. As he tried to scramble back to his feet, he heard the unmistakable hum of a charging weapon. Frightened, he glanced over his shoulder just in time to see a bolt of energy unleashed from the muzzle of a stun gun.

"No!" he cried, instinctively trying to shield his head with his hands, though he knew it would do no good.

But the expected shock of electricity never came. There was only a sudden, unexpected silence.

William cracked open one eye to see what had happened. But then his eyes widened. In front of him hung a semi-transparent curtain of greenish light, like a barrier of sorts. It shone like green-tinted glass in sunlight.

It was beautiful. And it had protected him.

But beyond the green glow, he could see the black-uniformed guard with his gun still aimed straight at him.

William pulled himself slowly to his feet, and the strange green shield vanished into thin air. He looked around at the guards encircling him—all of them stood still, as if frozen in place.

The Terraz Guardian regained its voice first. "Psychokinetic reaction detected!" it shrieked. "Isolate this boy immediately! Warning! Another psychokinetic reaction detected! Isolate! Isolate! Warning! Warning!"

Before William could react, the guards swooped in on him, gripped him under the arms, and hauled him up into the air. The door he had so desperately tried to get past slid open easily before them. The Guardian flew ahead, still shouting its commands. William struggled against the guards, but they refused to break their painfully tight hold on him. They carried him down a long corridor, through more doors, until finally they stopped and unceremoniously tossed him into an empty room.

He landed hard on the floor, but tried to scramble towards the doorway anyway. But the door hissed shut before he could reach it. The whir and click of multiple locks was audible. He was trapped.

William pulled himself up and pounded on the door. "Hey! What the hell's going on? Let me out!" he shouted, but somehow he knew that no one could hear him beyond the walls of this small room.

And then he had the uncanny feeling he wasn't alone. He whirled around and found a small, silver-haired boy sitting against the far wall, hugging his knees to his chest. He looked very familiar.

"You!" exclaimed William with a strange mixture of surprise and relief. "I thought you'd become an adult!"

The boy stared at him. "Who are you?"

"You don't remember? I'm William Harley. We talked in the cafeteria once?"

The boy shook his head slightly. "I don't remember."

William frowned, then crawled across the room to join the boy. The fresh bruises from the guards' manhandling made themselves known with a shower of unexpected pain, but he tried to block them out of his mind. He sat next to the boy and looked over at him. To his surprise, the boy's irises were an unusual dark red.

"Wait, what happened to your eyes?" he blurted out. "Weren't they blue before? And your hair?" He unwittingly reached out to touch the boy's head, but then stopped himself, feeling awkward.

The small boy hugged himself tighter. "I don't know. I woke up, and there were men shooting at me, I don't know why. I didn't mean to hurt them, but now they locked me in here and won't let me out—I've been here for days—"

"Hey, they were shooting at me, too," William interrupted, "and I didn't do anything bad, either. There's something else going on that's not our fault, I bet." He paused, hoping he was right, but then he pressed on. "What's your name?" he asked, trying to sound cheerful.

"I don't...know..." The boy buried his face in his hands and started crying.

There was a sinking feeling in William's stomach. Something very bad had happened to the kid, clearly. He patted the boy's back a little, trying to comfort him as best as he could. "You're probably just tired. It'll come back to you soon." He put his hands on the boy's shoulders and tried to get him to look up. "Maybe you don't remember me, but I remember you, so everything's gonna be okay."

Still the boy kept sobbing.

William suddenly recalled the question he had wanted to ask the kid before he had disappeared. He gently shook his shoulders. "Hey, there's something I've been wanting to talk to you about."

The boy looked up at him, teary-eyed. "Huh?"

"You—you can't hear very well, can you?"

The boy frowned and raised a hand to his right ear self-consciously, but then he nodded.

William smiled to reassure him. "I knew it. There was something about the way you looked at me when I talked, you know. It's okay—I did the same thing, before the doctors gave me this." He pointed at his hearing aid. He felt oddly pleased that he had read the boy correctly. He had rarely encountered anyone who had the same condition he had.

_But I'm still different from you._

The unexpected thought sent a jolt through William—it was the voice from before, the same voice that had led him into this troublesome situation, though it didn't spark a headache this time.

"Did you hear that?" asked William. He peered at the boy. "Or did you say something?"

The red-eyed boy gaped at him. "You heard that?"

"I heard someone say they were different from me. Is that what you said?"

The boy stared at him for a moment, but then he nodded. _That was me, _he said, without opening his mouth.

Realization struck William. "You! It was you!" He fell back in surprise. "It was your voice I heard in my head the whole time! You were calling for help—from in here?"

"You heard me?"

"Yeah! That's why I got thrown in here! I got busted roaming around looking for you!"

New tears gathered in the boy's ruby eyes. "I didn't think anyone would hear me," he said softly. "I can hear everyone's thoughts, all the things they don't say, but no one listened to me no matter how loud I screamed in here."

William put his hand back on the boy's shoulder. "But I heard you."

The boy lowered his head, then leaned against William's shoulder. _Then you're probably stuck in here with me for a very long time._

xxxxxx

The door to the Shangri-la's sickbay opened, and out strode a woman with long black hair, clad in the customary robe of an Elder. She nearly bumped into Harley, but caught herself just in time. "Oh! Captain! Soldier! I'm sorry!"

"Good morning, Ella," said Blue, and Harley greeted her with a perfunctionary smile. "Are you here to get your hearing checked, too?" asked the Soldier impishly.

The ship's historian frowned slightly, puzzled. "No, I was just stopping by to pick up some medicine for Zel. He's laid out by another one of his migraines," she explained. "But what brings you both here so early? A hearing check? Is something wrong?"

"No, not at all," said Harley. "We both just realized that we hadn't had our hearing aids tuned up in a long time. Doctor Nordy said he'd be happy to see both of us at once."

"I see." She gazed thoughtfully at Harley's ears, and then at Blue's large headphones. A soft smile came to her lips. "That brings back memories," she said. "How old are those headphones now, Soldier? 100 years or so?"

Blue's eyebrows rose. "I haven't been keeping count."

Ella tilted her head a little. "I remember—I was there when Harley found them."

The memory suddenly came to William. It had been almost a century after their escape from the massacre of Altamira. The surviving Mu had only just awoken from the deep coma of the cold sleep pods on the stolen spacecraft they had used to flee. In need of supplies, they took to scavenging from old wrecks and abandoned satellites drifting in space between Artemisia and its neighboring colonies. With the used parts and raw materials they found, they rebuilt their ship into a roughshod home. Sometimes they got lucky and found other useful things—medicines, data, weapons.

"That's right, you and I were digging through an old—what was it, a trader vessel?" said William. "That was when I found the old headset. It was the kind I had to wear as a kid, which is why I recognized it."

Ella clasped her hands in front of her. "I didn't even know what they were," she admitted. "But then you put them on and I laughed because you looked so silly in them." She suddenly realized what she had said and turned to Blue to add, "Not that they don't suit you, Soldier!"

Blue ran a hand over his hair. "I know. I'm much better looking than Harley."

Harley narrowed his eyes but did not rise to the bait.

"But I'll never forget what happened when we came back to the _Shangri-la_," Ella continued, enraptured by her own story. "Harley strode right up to you and held out those ancient headphones and said, 'Put them on.'"

"I vaguely remember something like that, yes," said Blue, and Harley knew he was teasing him now. There was little Blue actually forgot, no matter how often he played the fool.

"All I know is," said Ella, looking at Blue with fondness, "that my respect for you grew a thousand times that day, Soldier Blue. You led us safely through the carnage and into space without even being able to hear a single thing—and none of us knew it until then, except for Harley." She smiled, though there was a hint of regret lining her face. "To think that you already had such a fine control of telepathy that you could understand without hearing—only the Origin would be capable of such feats!"

But then Ella seemed to realize that she was preventing them from proceeding into sickbay. "I'm sorry, I'm reminiscing when you both have more important business to attend to. Forgive me," she said, stepping aside.

Blue touched her arm. "That's why you are our historian. You tell such fine stories to remind us of all we have achieved together." Ella blushed at the compliment. Then Blue turned back to Harley. "Now, shall we get this piece of space junk you gave me repaired?"

"If you please, Soldier," replied Harley and politely gestured towards the doorway. "The doctor is waiting."

xxxxxx

"What do you think is waiting for us out there, Blue?" mused William, staring out through one of the stolen spaceship's portholes. All he could see was the star-peppered blackness. The sun was behind him, and in the space where Altamira had been, there was nothing. Altamira was—gone.

"Nothing, maybe," replied Blue from where he was entering the last commands into the navigation computer. "The future, if we're lucky."

William turned away from the window. "Everyone else has gone to sleep."

"I know."

He moved across the control room to stand beside Blue. The ship was dark, the air was cold; he could see his breath turn to fog in the dim glow of the emergency lighting. William placed a hand on Blue's shoulder and felt him shiver.

All life support functions had been set to the minimum level to preserve resources. And soon enough, no one would be awake to feel the cold, or to even breath this stale air. Every space-faring vessel was equipped with life-preserving cold sleep pods that allowed their occupants to enter hibernation while their ship journeyed across the vast emptiness of space. Except for Blue and William, the other survivors of Altamira were already sound asleep in the cold, coffin-like metal pods aboard the ship. In a little while, the ship would go completely dark, hurtling through space while its passengers slept in artificial hibernation.

The ship would take many decades to reach its destination. It had been built for interplanetary travel, not journeys of multiple light years between stars. But there was no place for them in this star system. They had to leave behind the only sun they had known and find someplace new, someplace safe, far, far away.

This spaceship had saved their lives once before by taking them off Altamira, and Harley told himself that the vessel would not let them down this time, either.

"There," said Blue. "Everything's set, I think." His pale face looked sharp and haggard in the bright, blue-tinted light from the computer, but then even that light vanished. The ship was on autopilot to a distant star none of them had seen before.

"So this is it. We're really going to do this. We're going to sleep and wake up in a hundred years."

Blue lowered his hands to his sides. "Yeah." He turned to William, red eyes shining eerily in the dim light.

William didn't know what to say, so he silently put his arms around Blue and pulled him close. Except for the sound of their heartbeats and their breathy exhalations in the chilly air, William could hear nothing—a deathly silence.

"In the beginning, when everything started to go wrong, it was just the two of us, like this," said William. "All alone in the endless nightmare."

"What if you hadn't woken up when I called out from that first holding cell?" Blue asked after a moment.

"What do you mean?"

"What if I'd never dragged anyone else into this and just remained quietly in that prison until they killed me or grew tired of using me as a lab rat? Would any of this have happened?"

William's arms tightened around Blue. If he had stayed in his dormitory bed and ignored the voice in his head, he would probably never have found Blue again. He would have proceeded to the adulthood examination like anyone else and gone on to live a normal life.

Or maybe—like Blue and many of the others that had come after him—his latent telepathy would have flared to life at that moment when the computers wiped away the childhood memories to prepare the brain for adulthood. Then his fate would be worse than it was now, for he would have lost the memories of everything he held dear and then been killed or imprisoned.

But maybe he would have passed the exam and done whatever it was that new adults did on Altamira. But he knew what the result would have been then: "I'd probably be dead along with everyone else on Altamira." The destruction had not discriminated between normal and abnormal people.

Blue reached up to hug William closer. His hands felt warm against his back in this cold room.

"What if we don't wake up from the cold sleep?" said Blue, his face pressed against William's chest. "What if the end result is the same, and we all just end up dying anyway?"

William hated this line of questioning. He pulled back from Blue and cupped his face in his hands. "Then at least we'll rest in peace, knowing we're free," he responded, staring straight into those ruby eyes. "Look, you've led us this far, Blue. I have no doubt you will take us further!"

Blue blinked up at him, eyes full of doubt and regret. He hid those feelings so well from the others, but now there was no one left but William to see his weakness.

Pained to see him like this before they settled in for the long-term sleep, William leaned down to kiss Blue with the hope of distracting him from his cynical thoughts. Blue's mouth was warm—hot even, in this cold, cold ship—and his body pressed against his with reassuring familiarity. They pulled each other closer, seeking mutual comfort as they had in those incredibly rare moments when they had been alone together, before the true disaster struck. But now there was a greater urgency in their movements, and William found himself wanting to be even closer to Blue, to memorize every single inch of his body so that he wouldn't forget it even if the cold sleep were eternal.

Blue staggered back a few steps, pulling William with him until they bumped into the bulkhead. "Ow," winced Blue as his head hit the wall.

William propped one forearm against the wall and ducked down to plant a kiss on top of Blue's head, as if that would ease the pain. "When you wake up again, there won't even be a bruise," he promised.

"When we wake up again, we'll be old men," Blue retorted.

"You have a problem with older men?" teased William.

Blue's arms wrapped around William's waist while he moved up to press his lips pressed against William's neck. "No," he murmured.

"Blue..."

"Don't call me by that name, Harley." Blue's warm breath tickled his ear now.

"Why? Because it's not your real name?" He pulled back a little. "Then don't call me Harley—my first name's William!"

Blue avoided his gaze. "I just don't like being called Blue."

William tilted Blue's chin up to get a better look at his face and to keep him from averting his eyes. Blue's brows furrowed with mild annoyance. Without closing his eyes, William moved in to kiss him again. _I still remember when your eyes were blue, _he told him telepathically. _The blue eyes you had before you became Blue._

A wry amusement welled up in Blue's mind and spread to William. _Now no one else in the universe remembers that, except you, _he said without interrupting the kiss. Anyone else who had known him before his awakening was space dust, along with the rest of Altamira.

Blue pulled him closer until William was practically pinning him to the wall. Their hands roamed over each other with almost frantic eagerness now.

_No one else in the universe touches you like this, either, _added William.

Blue broke the kiss with a gasp. "Ah, that's true, too," he murmured, then let out another shuddering gasp as William's hand moved lower.

_I love you, Blue._

This time there was no protest about the name.

xxxxxx

"Captain Harley."

William snapped out of his daydream. "Yes?"

The doctor held out a metal tray with the Soldier's headphones and two smaller, oblong hearing aids on it. "We're done. I know you prefer to use only one at a time, but I've adjusted both of them. Please try them on to see if you notice any problems."

William picked up two smaller devices and slid one over each ear. They were made of such light material he could hardly feel them, but he knew immediately that they were working. A torrent of sound rushed in on him—the roar of blood in his veins, the pulsing sound of his own breathing, the clink of the doctor's lab coat zipper against the metal tray he held, the busy hum of the various devices that kept sickbay running. It was overwhelming, so he quickly pulled one of the earpieces back off. His inner ear implants plus the single hearing aid were more than enough for him.

"They seem fine, Doctor. Thank you."

The doctor nodded and moved on to the chair next the captain's, where the Soldier sat. Blue slouched languidly with his chin resting on his hand, but he sat up straighter as the doctor approached. He eagerly reached for the headset presented to him on the tray, picked it up, and held the device for a moment as if he were weighing it. Then he carefully slid it over his head and closed his eyes. A pleased smile spread across his lips. "Mmm, yes, that is much better."

"I do wish you would consider changing to a more modern model, Soldier," sighed the doctor.

"Ah, but this is a rare antique, Doctor," said Blue, trying to smooth his unruly hair into place beneath the band of the headset. "It is older than you are, and possibly even older than Harley!"

William raised an eyebrow at the jibe about his age. The age gap between them seemed irrelevant when they were both two centuries old.

The doctor merely lowered the empty tray and sighed again. "I know. That's why I wish you'd replace it. It's a pain to maintain all those old parts."

"They simply do not make hearing aids like they used to," insisted Blue.

"For good reason," muttered the doctor.

Blue smiled. "Sometimes, Doctor, it's good to remember how far we've come by looking at the remnants of our past." He looked over at William. "Wouldn't you agree, Captain?"

William nodded and stood up. He offered his hand to Blue to help him out of his chair. "But of course, Soldier."

xxxxxx

_Harley?_

Blue's voice reached William's mind even through the thick metal of the hibernation pods.

_Yes?_

_When we wake up, what kind of world do you think we'll find? A free world, or just another cruel one?_

William shifted slightly, trying to move in the direction of Blue's pod. But it was nearly impossible to move in this heavily padded machine, and already the chemicals in the ice-cold air he breathed were making him struggle to keep his eyes open. The cold sleep would take him sooner than he expected.

Still, he rallied his sluggish mind to reply: _As long as it's a world with you in it, it'll be a beautiful world. Maybe even a world where we can find happiness._

There was a long pause, and William wondered if Blue had already succumbed to the artificially induced sleep.

But then a slow, sleepy response touched William's mind: _I…hope…so._

Too weary to say anything more, William Harley smiled to himself and fell into a long—but not eternal—sleep.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**Author's Overly Long Notes:**

I wrote this because I find Harley such a compelling character—he supported the first two Soldiers pretty much for their entire lives, after all! I wanted to try to imagine what Harley was like in the past—as a Mu kid, he must have run into some kind of trouble with the establishment, but he's the most disciplined person on the Shangri-la, so I couldn't imagine him doing anything as crazy as, say, Jomy. And as a younger captain, I imagine he and Blue were "bros" in good times and in bad.

The Blue/Harley romance worked its way into the story inadvertently, since I usually ship Blue with Physis. But since I set this story to take place before Physis even exists, I could see Blue and Harley still having a kind of more-than-just-best-friends relationship after the ridiculous amount of stuff they've been through together. I don't think anyone understood Blue better than Harley. I'll leave it up to you to decide whether you think their odd romance continued into the time when the anime takes place, or if it eventually faded out. ;)

The stuff about Harley's hearing problems in the beginning is based on conversations with a deaf friend, not personal experience, so if you happen to have more first-hand experience to make that part more realistic, please let me know.

And, yes, the title comes from Utada Hikaru's song "Beautiful World."

Thanks for reading! Reviews are always appreciated.


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